


Rake the Sands

by bluestalking



Category: Warchild Series - Karin Lowachee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 19:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13037847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluestalking/pseuds/bluestalking
Summary: Post-Cagebird, five points of view, on a ship full of pirates and pirate-killers and something better. Something else.





	Rake the Sands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Khantael](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khantael/gifts).



> Title from Outer Scorpion Squadron by the Mountain Goats.

**1: STEFANO**

Stefano doesn’t like Erret Dorr. Dorr makes him clench his fists and have to hide it. It doesn’t bother him that Dorr might try to kill them, even though he knows Dorr is a maniac. Not even though Stefano knows that not one person would stop Dorr from killing them, not even the captain, not on this whole damn ship. 

There’s thousands of jets on this boat, Mac’s own and Archangel’s too. Stefano is fully aware that any one of them would look at him and see a pirate. It doesn’t matter who he is or what he’s done. He’s a pirate to them, just for keeping close to Yuri. And despite their captain—maybe in part because of him—they don’t harbor any love for pirates. Of all the deaths to mourn out here, his and Yuri’s wouldn’t be among them.

But really—he doesn’t mind Dorr’s violence. Violence is everywhere. With Dorr, it’s the edge. Its the crassness. It’s the way Dorr leans in and _suggests_ and leans out again with a smirk, once he’s set the fire in Stefano’s blood. It makes things harder than they have to be, makes Stefano ignite where he needs to stay cool.

He can’t bear that.

That’s the difference between Stefano and Yuri (yes, though, there are a lot of differences between Stefano and Yuri). Yuri starts burning, he cuts it out of himself. It’s amazing to Stefano that Yuri has done the things he has, the things he’s told Stefano in his sleep. It’s amazing he’s done all that, but hasn’t gone an inch too deep and far and cut himself right out of living. He must be afraid to stop living, just a little more than he’s unable to stop himself leaking out a portion of his life now and then. Stefano doesn’t think the killing comes naturally, the way the hurting does. Yuri goes after himself first, except when he can’t get away and someone puts him on a spot where he has to strike another person first.

Stefano isn’t like that. Stefano never bleeds. When he gets the fire in his blood, he holds it in; and when he can’t, he cuts it out of someone else.

No doubt he could take a bloody chunk out of Dorr, but that would be all. Those thousands of jets would have him and Yuri full of holes lying very still a second after Stefano’s blow fell.

He dreads Dorr’s leer.

“Why do we get stuck with you anyway?” Yuri says. They’re following Dorr through the bowels of the ship, while Dorr grins and bobs ahead of them like he’s showing off his new toys.

“Cap loves me, that’s why,” Dorr says. “Just loves to give me all the dregs, train ‘em up pretty.”

“I already know how to fight,” Yuri says.

“Yeah, you know how to fight like pirate trash,” Dorr says, in that sing-song of agreeability that makes Stefano want to tear him apart. He glances over his shoulder at Stefano and winks. “What about your little birdy, there? I hear he’s a killer.”

“You want to find out?” Stefano says, jaw tight.

Dorr laughs. “Being a killer don’t make you a fighter, baby,” he says. “Let me show you some moves.”

“I’m not interested,” Stefano says stiffly.

“Unfortunately for you, the captain does not give even one shit what you’re interested in,” Dorr says.

Yuri says suddenly, “Jos Musey.”

There’s a twitch--a half-roll--to Dorr’s shoulders. “What about him?” 

“You, being left with the ‘dregs.’ Musey was yours, wasn’t he?” Yuri says. “When he was a jet. He was a jet on the Macedon.”

Dorr tilts his head. “Ladies first.” They come onto the training deck, them ahead of Dorr, and Dorr says, “Yeah, he was mine. So what?”

“He betrayed you,” says Yuri. “A pirate and a symp. Why didn’t you throw him out an airlock?”

“Oh, well, that,” Dorr says. “Yeah, I wanted to. But the kid’s been through the wars, it fucks you up. And you know, he did put his ass on the line for us. He’s a good kid under it all. Anyway, if I was still mad, I’d have to get in line to kill him.” He laughs. “And I wouldn’t want to try.”

“I thought you were supposed to be a good fighter,” Stefano says.

“A good fighter, not a fucking assassin,” Dorr says. “Anyway, you wanna fuck with a boy that’s got Captain Cairo Azarcon and the Warboy both on his side? Jesus, it would be a galactic incident. No one’s walking out of that one.” _Not even me,_ he doesn’t say. Yuri has said that Azarcon has a soft spot for Dorr, as much as he does for anybody.

Stefano looks at Yuri, his slumped-forward shoulders and the tension in them. Stefano doesn’t know much about Jos, but he knows that Jos and Yuri both came through the same gauntlet.

Falcone. 

How fucking unfair is it, Stefano thinks, that Jos ends up protected by the most powerful people in the universe—people on both sides, he thinks, even though the sides are changing—and Yuri ends up like this, ship lost, friends gone, scarred up and surrounded by people who don’t even bother to kill him. He has his life and he has Stefano, and what else? Dexter, he has the bird. That’s everything.

( _And what_ , a voice whispers to him, do you have?)

“Lucky boy,” Yuri says. 

Dorr leads them over to a section of the mats that’s not in use by anybody. He says, “Mano, you still pissed that he did for your old man?”

Yuri stops in his tracks.

“What?” he says.

“Falcone,” Dorr says, as if it’s obvious. “Maybe you didn’t want him dead.”

“What do you mean?” Yuri says. There’s a sharp edge in his voice that makes Stefano want to both sit down and listen, and talk Yuri off a coming ledge.

“You’d be the first to want him alive—or maybe you just wanted to kill him yourself.” Dorr is stretching as he speaks, without attention, with the practice of someone who knows his own body and is maybe so cocksure that he thinks that’s enough.

“That’s not what I meant,” Yuri snarls.

Dorr is staring at Yuri, now, as though he’s stupid and crazy both. “Who the fuck do you think killed the old bird, then?” he says.

Yuri stares right back for a few seconds, then says carefully, “Fuck this.”

He spins around and marches right off the mat again, ignoring Dorr’s half-aggravated, half-laughing shouts behind him. Stefano hurries to keep up.

“Yuri,” he says. “Yuri!” He doesn’t ask Yuri to wait for him, because he’s keeping up fine on his own.

“What?” Yuri snarls, then stops and grabs his wrists and drags his eyes up to Stefano’s. “I’m going to find him. No one told me. I’m going to make him tell me everything.”

“I know,” says Stefano. “I’m agreeing with you. I’m just letting you know I’ve got your back.”

Yuri shakes his head. “Come on, let’s find out where he lives.” 

He starts to turn, and a second later, Dorr catches up. “You know you ain’t going anywhere on Mac without someone watching your ass,” he says, catching his breath. “You may not feel like training, but you’re sure as hell not taking off on your own.”

“Find us another babysitter, then,” Yuri says waspishly. “I don’t need you picking through my personals, Dorr.”

“And I don’t want to be picking up any of your sweet STDs,” Dorr says. Stefano feels a twinge of dislike. “So we’ll hand you over to someone else. Let us see what Baby Az is up to just this second. I’m sure he’d _love_ to ferry you about.”

Yuri tenses, but Stefano is relieved. Better any Azarcon than Dorr.

**2: RYAN**

There’s a difference between standing outside a cage and looking in at a pirate who wishes he’d killed you, and leading the pirate around a ship with your back wide open and no one to watch it.

Ryan tries to imagine that he’s walking through a crowd on Austro, meedees bleating, teenagers shrieking, Sid right by his side, and it’s before he’s been shot at or kidnapped and he isn’t scared of anything but Earth.

But that makes him think of Silver, and god, he could use a hit. The yearning, which he’s barely had time for in ages, streaks through his blood and makes his mouth water.

It’s easier to combat that, though, than it is to keep his nerve up with the reality of walking Yuri Kirov through his father’s ship like they’re friends, and like Ryan is remotely the same as an armed escort.

Screw Dorr and his practical jokes. 

“He wants to shoot the shit with Musey,” Dorr had drawled. “And I’m busy. So why don’t you go and earn your keep, Baby Az?”

No doubt Ryan’s father would be pissed if he heard about it, but who is going to tell? Not Ryan. And not Yuri either, by any means. He hopes.

They make their way to Musey’s quarters. 

“You’re not scared to be alone with me?” Kirov says, in his sweet-croaking voice.

“What are you going to do?” Ryan says. “Kill me twice?” He sees—what’s his name? Finch. He sees Finch tense. It seems Ryan is the only one without a bodyguard in this little party. 

Ryan thinks of Shiri. He’s been talking to Shiri pretty regularly, and she’s adjusted to the insane thing he’s doing of being off Austro in the middle of the biggest thing happening in the known universe. But he can imagine what she’d say if he said he was walking Yuri Kirov around the ship unshackled, two against one.

He can imagine what he’d say to _himself_ , if he let himself think that way. Either way, he doesn’t think Finch needs to be so worried that Ryan’s going to emotionally scar his pirate boyfriend, even if it’s true, that Ryan can make his words devastating when he wants to be.

He thinks he might have gotten to Kirov before, actually.

“You’re funny,” Kirov says in a cold voice. He’s like a fish. Something clammy with teeth, specifically something Ryan’s seen in vids but never in real life. Not a shark--like a barracuda. Ryan wonders if Kirov _feels_ cold, and if he ever warms up.

“You’ve got a bird, right?” Ryan says.

Kirov pauses before he answers. “Yeah.”

“That’s kind of unusual for someone living in deep space.”

“He was a present,” Kirov says, words snapped off at the end.

“That’s nice,” Ryan says. “What kind of bird is it?”

“His name is Dexter,” Kirov says. “He’s a lovebird.”

Ryan nearly trips, it’s so unexpected. Probably the name doesn’t mean anything about the bird, or about Kirov either, but come on! _Lovebird?_

“I’ve never had a pet,” Ryan says. “My--” 

He trips over his words and falls flat on his metaphorical face. His feet stick just slightly in their steps, enough that he knows they can see him stumble.

“Your what?” says Finch.

But Yuri is eyeing him like the devil himself.

“His mama,” Kirov says. 

Ryan says, “You can push on that, Kirov, but if you do I’ll get some nice helpful jets to happily brig you until you think of a better idea.”

Kirov puts his hands up. “I didn’t bring her up,” he says. “And I didn’t kill her, either.”

“You don’t really want to talk about what you _did_ do, do you?” Ryan asks.

“What’s wrong with a little trip down memory lane?” Kirov says, but he glances at Finch, who pretends to be watching the bulkheads go by.

“I didn’t love getting shot,” Ryan says. And then he’s suddenly tired of dancing. “Why the hell did you do it, anyway?”

It comes out so casually that Ryan is proud, but he’s sweating cold. 

“I panicked,” says Kirov. “What the fuck do you want me to say, kid? Whatever you want, I can’t give it to you.”

Ryan doesn’t really want anything. He already tried that, and all it got was Kirov, in the brig, snarling about how he should have shot Ryan _dead,_ instead of most of the way there. 

So they go on in silence for a bit. Finally Ryan says, “The captain won’t tell me what your deal is, but you know, there are worse places to land.”

“Oh, you think so?” Kirov says snidely. “You’ve fallen far for a rich stitch. I sure doubt this ship has all the comforts of your pretty home.”

“It doesn’t. But I’ve got eyes,” Ryan says, aware that they’re the first thing anyone notices, aware that Kirov knows he almost cost Ryan his sight. Ryan lets that settle in, then says, “You aren’t the worst thing on this ship, Kirov, and I’m sure your boyfriend isn’t.”

Neither of them denies the boyfriend thing so Ryan concludes he’s right about that. 

Kirov says, “Is that a threat, pretty boy?” 

“Yuri,” Finch says quietly.

“It’s not a threat,” Ryan says, ignoring the rising hairs on the back of his neck. “It’s a lifeline.”

“Like you would fucking know,” Yuri says, laughing. “You’re a privileged piece of work.”

Maybe that’s half fair, but Ryan isn’t stupid, either.

“Just don’t—despair,” he says. 

Yuri laughs again, but oh, he looks so haunted.

“Do you even _care_ that I shot you?”

“I did,” Ryan lies, “but I got over it.”

“Sure you did,” Kirov says mistrustfully.

“I mean it about the ship,” says Ryan. “You can just ask Musey.”

“Yeah, I know what he’d say,” Kirov tells him. “He has a lot to say.”

Ryan laughs. “Not the Musey I know.”

“Dorr,” says Finch suddenly. “You said the ship is good. But he’s not safe. And he’s all over the damn place.”

“Dorr’s all talk,” Ryan says. “He drove me nuts when I came aboard, but despite his dirty mouth and his attitude, he’s not bad. He’s loyal. Loyal to my father, loyal to his jets. And he doesn’t hurt people who don’t deserve it.”

“Loyal to Musey,” Kirov says, as if it’s an alien joke that he’s trying to understand.

“Yeah,” Ryan says. “He really is. I mean it, he won’t hurt you if the Captain says you’re supposed to be here. And, you know, you don’t do anything stupid. He only hunts mutineers.”

“I don’t like him,” Finch says. “He needs to back off.”

“Not really on his playlist, but good luck,” Ryan says. 

Finch narrows his eyes. Kirov takes his wrist, just for a moment, until some of the anger boils out of him and he’s left a little less intense. That’s it, just a little touch and it’s over. 

Imagine syncing up with someone like that.

Look at that--Ryan’s jealous.

“Come on,” he says. “We’re almost there. You can ask someone who’s not a privileged piece of work if I know what the hell I’m talking about.”

**3: EVAN**

Evan is splayed out on his bed, hand tucked behind his bed, smoking a cig and shutting his eyes to the music. He’s thinking about how he has to change something. The jets off Archangel aren’t as forgiving as the ones on Mac (bloody fucking ha), and they’re making it hard for Evan to go about his goddamn business. Oh, excuse him for wanting to do a little research on games, or take a walk, or get some goddamn dinner! He’s back to one hundred percent pirate scum, and even though things are okay with Mac’s people now, there’s still not that many who will get in the way of someone else’s taunts and fists for his sake.

He made the mistake of sleeping with one of them--one of the Archangel jets--and he’s still paying for it in bruises a week later. Nothing bad enough to get anyone involved, but he doesn’t like the reminder, when he twists the wrong way. Even when he’s not fucking them, though, they’re worse than Mac’s. He’d just started to get comfy here, with the jeers not accompanied by death threats anymore. 

There’s no such thing as a safe place, though, not anywhere, and he _knows_ that. At least he’d known how to survive here for awhile. Things were okay. Starting over sucks.

Fucking jets.

He doesn’t expect anyone to come find him just now, and Jos doesn’t ask before he comes into his own space, so when someone turns up outside his hatch, clamoring to be let in, and interrupts Evan’s chill, he’s not totally sure what to expect. Ryan, maybe--they’ve been spending a lot of time together lately. He likes Ryan, when he can wrap his head around how stupid spoiled the guy is. Ryan is cute, and he likes Evan. Maybe it’s on Evan’s own merits, or maybe there’s just not that many misfits around here that aren’t also walking tanks. Whatever. Ryan is nice. And he tries so damn hard it does a little something to Evan’s gut. Makes him feel weak, without it being dangerous.

He wouldn’t mind opening the hatch for Ryan.

When he goes to see who it is, Ryan _is_ waiting outside, but he isn’t alone.

“Hey, Evan. Is Jos in?” Ryan says, innocent as always, with his beautiful blue eyes beaming into Evan on low power. But he’s not alone.

Oh, fucking bloody hell.

Evan knew Yuri Kirov was aboard this ship, because everyone’s buzzing and because even Jos threw Evan a bone about this one. Not like they were close, but--it’s the connections, isn’t it? It’s the little stretches of tendon between you and this other thing, so you’re all a part of one filthy organism that can’t tear itself free without screaming.

There’s Yuri Kirov and that little pet he supposedly brings everywhere--not the bird, there’s a real bird apparently, and Evan’s barely ever seen any and he’s kind of curious—but the pretty young man with a bird name, who looks gentle as a kitten, now that Evan sees him, except he knows this kitten does murder.

Evan says, “Jos isn’t here.”

Yuri says, “Is this a joke?”

Ryan looks mystified. “It really seems like he’s not,” he says.

Evan clenches his hand against the hatch. He says, “ _We’re_ berthmates, what the fuck do _you_ want?”

“I know you,” Yuri says. “You’re a pirate. A fucking protege.”

“What the fuck are you, then?” Evan asks pleasantly, but his heart is racing. Him and Jos have grappled through it, but Evan doesn’t love reminders of where he’s been. In fact he’s done he can to claw himself some kind of a better existence. 

He doesn’t love knowing all the ways Yuri has seen him. He doesn’t like imagining how he looked to Yuri, back when he was--

“It’s a god damn party on this boat,” Yuri says. “Is anyone here not a pirate?”

“Oh, yeah,” Evan says lightly. “The ones that try to kill you, they’re just orphans and murderers.”

“And there’s me,” Ryan says, smile only slightly daunted. His skin has gotten thicker since he arrived on Mac, and Evan thinks it only improves him.

“A babe in the woods,” he says lasciviously.

Yuri looks totally stumped, a strangely innocent look on someone as cold and taut as he is.

“You all right, Azarcon?” Evan asks, more lightly than he feels.

“Not bad, D’Silva,” says Ryan. “You know each other?”

“We’ve met,” says Evan. “I didn’t think he’d ever walk away from that shit. Pretty deep indoctrinated. Lapped it up like a puppy dog.” His hands are braced against the bulkhead so he doesn’t shake.

“What is Azarcon thinking?” Yuri says. “Why _you_?”

“Don’t thank the Captain,” Evan says. “It’s Jos who got me on board.” He gives a half-nod, half-shrug. “We grew up on the same merchant.”

Yuri looks like a few things are being cleared up for him. _Good,_ thinks Evan. Maybe he’ll go away, then.

But, “Where’s Musey at now?” Yuri says.

“How the fuck should I know?” asks Evan. “He’s probably off doing important alien shit, don’t you think? This whole peace kind of rides on him running back and forth playing nice.”

Ryan laughs, and Yuri stares at him. Yuri’s Finch, Evan notices, doesn’t put much of a word in. A listener, that man. Evan isn’t sure if that should worry him. Loud people might hit you, but at least they tell you what’s coming.

“What’s your problem?” Yuri asks Ryan.

“Musey being nice,” Ryan says, grinning to himself. “It’s hilarious.”

“Man, where’s _your_ babysitter?” Evan says. “He should be around to tell you when to keep your mouth shut.”

“Sid’s sick of your flirting,” Ryan says, even though Evan never flirts with Ryan’s marine. “He wanted to spend time with someone a little more muscular than you and me.”

“Are you serious?” Evan says.

“You’ll never know. Can we come in?” Ryan says. “It’s weird, standing outside your door like this. Hatch. Whatever.” 

“Only if you’re not a hostage. Didn’t he shoot you?” Evan says, pointing to Yuri. “You really want to shut yourself in with him and his boy?”

Ryan is built for withstanding uncomfortable questions, but he’s used to the answers being casted to millions. On his own like this, Evan can see the doubt slide over him.

“I wouldn’t shoot me on the Macedon,” he says. “And anyway, he doesn’t have a gun.”

“You don’t need a gun,” says Yuri, and Evan watches Finch move almost imperceptibly closer to him. It would be sweet, if they weren’t so terrifying.

“You can come in,” Evan says. “Jos’ll come back eventually. Why ever you’d want to talk to him.” Yuri meets his eyes, looks him up and down like he’s deciding what kind of threat Evan will be. Evan swallows the sick feeling in his gut—it sends him straight back, he doesn’t want to go back—and makes room.

“Welcome to the grand palace,” he says, flourishing his arm. 

He can feel the questions rising up in Yuri, but he can’t tell if Yuri really cares at all or if it’s just in Evan’s head.

Evan distracts himself by sticking out his hand as they seat themselves over the chairs and the bunk.

“You’re the one I haven’t met yet,” he says to Finch. “I’m Evan.”

“Finch.” Finch shakes his hand, a nod tacked on. His hold is firm and his palm is dry. Not painful dry. He looks almost too soft to be a killer, but there’s flint in him.

Evan wonders if he’d kill for Yuri. Maybe. Why else would he be here, sticking around? Except Mac is big and lonely and brutal, in its savagely lawful way, and it’s better to have someone fucked up on your side than nobody at all. Yuri must be on Finch’s side, at least a little.

“Welcome to the Macedon,” he says. “Which I’m sure you’ve heard already. Or not, knowing this crew. You sure landed in the middle of the dire shit.”

“I thought it was all dire shit,” Finch says. “Isn’t that what these ships are for?”

Evan laughs. “Stick around,” he says, “And it’s almost like home.”

Yuri stares straight into him for that, but Evan doesn’t back down. 

Ryan says, “Surprisingly.” He’s still eyeing Yuri gingerly, like he’s not sure whether to act cool or run for his daddy.

Yuri ignores Ryan and says, “You like it here?”

Evan says, “Here’s okay. I’m okay and what do I have to offer?” He watches Ryan blush, saves that up for later. He takes out a cig and offers one to Yuri and Finch. Finch shakes his head. Yuri looks like he’s about to say no, then takes one after all.

“More than me,” Yuri says. “I gave them everything I had just to get on this damn ship. They could vent me now and not lose anything of value.” He takes in a long drag of the cig and puffs the smoke out right in Ryan’s face.

Evan is surprised, because Yuri is the success story—from the pirate side of things. Yuri is proof that some people are born to be pirates, that the poison can take. He always looked fierce and haughty, standing by Falcone. He always made Evan jealous, because whatever was happening to him was clearly better than what was happening to Evan. 

Evan doesn’t expect Yuri to talk about himself in terms of what he isn’t worth.

“Don’t give the jets an excuse,” he says. “What did you want Jos for, anyway?”

Yuri skewers him with a glare like a dead hawk. (Except Evan knows what that looks like, and maybe not.)

“He killed Falcone,” he says.

“Oh,” says Evan. “Yeah.”

He wants to ask if Yuri is upset about it, if he’s sad Falcone is dead, but he doesn’t want to get stabbed.

Yuri breathes out more smoke. 

“Yeah, you should ask him about it,” Evan says. “He might even answer you. You know he’s not much of a talker.”

“We’ve talked before,” Yuri says. Everything he does and says reminds Evan of a sick cat. Lots of cats on Shiva, to keep the rats down.

“Then you already know,” says Evan. “Let’s play cards. Hands up if you want a drink.”

Everyone wants something, even that Finch. Once they settle into the game, it’s weird—almost like they’re all people in this room. 

Evan wins two hands of poker, and Finch wins the third—Yuri is starting to look shocked by this point—when Jos comes in. His whole face does that shut-down from the outside in, until he looks like a blank lemon.

“I didn’t know you were having a party,” he says neutrally.

“Me either,” says Evan. “But he wanted to talk to you about something.” He gestures at Yuri.

Joe turns in his direction. “What?” he says.

Yuri’s gaze flicks around to his audience. “Falcone,” he says. 

Jos says, “Out.” He’s saying it to Evan and Ryan, and probably Finch too. Jos isn’t one to share his feelings widely.

“Asshole,” Evan says. “Come on, Finch, me and Ryan will escort you home.”

Finch looks at Yuri—the guy really needs to detach a little—and Yuri says, “Go with them. I’ll catch up.”

Ryan gets up first, and tipsily pulls Evan to his feet. They don’t touch Finch, just wave him out the hatch ahead of them. Evan makes it his goal to get Finch to smile, just once. He can’t be harder to crack than Jos, after all.

**4: JOS**

“What do you want?” Jos asks, before Yuri can make it all too weird. The few times he’s met Yuri, he’s felt an uneasiness just below his skin. Maybe it’s drugs or trauma or maybe Yuri is just plain evil, but in any case Jos is wary of him. He thinks about disarming himself, for the half second that he usually would when he first gets home, and then he thinks twice. He leaves his weapons where they are.

Yuri’s cold eyes are on him, following him around like one of them is going to attack.

“It was you,” he says, in his rough, sweet voice.

“Me what?” Jos says. He leans carefully against the storage compartments opposite the bunks, hands at the edges. Hands close to his weapons.

“You killed him. Falcone.” Yuri is sitting on Evan’s bed, leaning forward, his palms rubbing together with the whispering sound of dry skin.

“Yeah,” Jos says finally. “I killed Falcone. Who did you think it was?”

“I don’t know,” Yuri says, defensive, disoriented. “They just said a symp.”

Jos might ask what other symp would bother to do it, but any sympathizer or striv not on Ash’s side has reason to hate the pirates. It’s just that Jos had more reason than any of them, and the will to act.

“Well, they’re trying not to make it too public,” he says. “I’m helping with the peace, and some people think summary execution was an act of malfeasance.”

Yuri stares at him.

“Crime,” Jos says.

“I know,” Yuri says. 

“Are you angry I killed him?” Jos says. “I’m not sorry about it.”

He knows Yuri wanted to run, wanted to run for a long time. That doesn’t mean he’s not pirate twisted enough to love Falcone in some messed up way. 

Or maybe he’s angry that Jos got there first.

Yuri’s hands unpress from each other. His fingertips brush his wrists. Jos doesn’t think he knows that he’s doing it.

“Did it feel good?” he says. “Did you like it?”

Did he like it. He needed it, and it came to him, and he took it for every drop of blood it gave him.

“It was right,” he says.

Yuri makes a noise somewhere between a laugh and a _huh!_

“He didn’t deserve to be alive,” Jos says. “If he’d stayed alive, he would have gotten away and done everything over again. New ships. New kids.”

“Yeah,” says Yuri. He’s skittish, shoulders hunched, eyes going everywhere. Jos wonders for a fleeting moment how he ever hid his feelings and his fear well enough to do the things Jos knows he’s done. The hundred other things he’s sure Falcone made him do. But he wants badly not to think about that, so he pushes the question aside, into the dark.

“Are you angry?” he asks again.

“No,” Yuri says. “He was a bastard. That’s not what killed—that isn’t what I cared about.”

But there was something. Because you always ended up caring, no matter how much you tried to shut it all down.

“I stabbed him,” Jos says. “Several times. Once in the neck.”

Yuri does look at him then.

“He was confused,” Jos says. “That I was killing him. I don’t know what was so confusing about it.”

Yuri says, “He would never believe he could really lose.”

Not a protege. Not a battle. Not his life.

“No,” Jos agrees.

“Thank you,” says Yuri. His face doesn’t read like thanks, but Jos knows better than to trust a face like his to tell the truth about everything. Fear gets out, but gratefulness. Love. You can’t leave stuff like that lying around. How long has Niko had to care for Jos for Jos to let him see?

Jos nods shortly. 

“Are you getting on?” he says. “The ship.”

“Mine is dead,” Yuri says. “And I killed her.”

“Is that the only thing?”

Yuri says, “It could be worse.” 

His eyes trail to the hatch.

“You’re not alone, anyway,” says Jos.

“I’ve got my bird,” says Yuri. “And a boatload of jets who don’t feel like they owe me anything.”

“The jets on Macedon only feel that they owe one man anything,” Jos says.

Yuri looks like he wants to ask something, is hungry for an answer he won’t beg for.

“Azarcon is tough,” says Jos. “But I told you, this ship’s good. This ship’s him.”

Yuri absorbs it.

“That’s all,” he says finally. “You want to babysit me back to q?”

Jos nods, and pushes off from the storage units.

Jos is mostly able to screen out the way people look at him on the ship these days. There’s always a look, one way or another. He would rather not be looked at at all, but there’s nothing to do about it. He’s learned not to see people seeing him, unless they’re about to hit.

The difference in the looks, when he walks with Yuri, is impossible to ignore.

Yuri gets taller when people look at him, walking with a low-slung swagger that makes him move like mercury. That, Jos thinks, is what survived Falcone.

They barely speak. What do they have to say? The thread that connects them is bloody and painful and neither of them wants it to spill over. They’ve talked about the ending. What else is there to say?

When they reach Yuri and Finch’s quarters, Evan and Ryan are still inside.

“You’re here,” says Jos.

“We were meeting the bird,” Evan says.

“We even got Finch to talk,” Ryan says.

“Anyone would talk to shut you up,” Jos tells him. 

Ryan rolls his eyes and stands, stretching. 

“Come on, Evan,” he says. “This is clearly a bummer zone now.”

“That’s not my fault,” Finch says.

“No one is blaming you,” Ryan promises. “Thanks for the hospitality.”

“Sure,” says Finch.

Evan gets to his feet, grinning. “Bye, Jos. See ya, Finch.” His gaze stutters when it reaches Yuri. “See you, I guess. Good luck with the ship.”

“Right,” Yuri says.

Jos decides this is a good time to make his escape.

“I have a meeting,” he says, and if it’s not true now he can make it true. He’d rather be negotiating the peace of the galaxy than negotiating this.

 

**5: YURI**

There’s relief, real and immediate, in being shut in alone with Dexter and Finch. Yuri’s skin feels too tight from talking, from too much of the past in too many directions. 

“You know Evan,” Finch says.

“Yes,” says Yuri. “Sort of.”

“You shot Ryan Azarcon.”

“And went to prison for it,” Yuri says. “Among other things.”

“Did Jos tell you what you needed to hear?”

Finch is a mystery and a miracle because he can ask these things delicately without making Yuri angry. He can ask them without even making Yuri feel delicate.

“I guess so,” he says. “He killed the old bastard. I guess I knew that anyway.”

Finch puts a hand on his wrist.

“You’re okay,” he says.

Yuri says, “I’m a pirate on a pirate hunter.”

“So what?” Finch says. “You have to see that doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means something,” Yuri says.

“All right, then it doesn’t mean _everything_ ,” Finch says. “You’re the only place where it doesn’t mean everything.” 

Yuri breathes. He breathes _in_.

He says, “I know.”

“I don’t think it’s so bad,” says Finch. 

Yuri cracks a smile. “You have friends now?”

Finch shrugs it off.

Yuri says, “I’m glad. I’m glad it’s okay.”

Finch says, “I am okay. It’s going to be all right, Yuri.” 

“You deserve better than this,” Yuri says. _Than me_ , he means.

“Maybe,” says Finch.

He knows what Yuri is, more than anybody, maybe, and still he says this. Still he won’t condemn Yuri outright. When did he stop being condemned outright?

“It’s going to be all right,” Finch says again.

And maybe he’s stupid, maybe he’s the biggest idiot alive, but Yuri believes him. He looks at Finch, in their space on this ship, its engines thrumming in his chest like a purr, and he believes him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, Khantael! Thank you so much for requesting this! I also reread this series about once a year (since...2004? 2005?) and I dearly wish there were more books to continue everyone's story. It was awesome to get to think about what might happen next (you know, just a little of it) in concrete details. Even though they weren't among the ones you specifically requested, I REALLY enjoyed writing Finch and Evan's canonically untapped POVs, so I hope you enjoyed them too. Thank you so much, and happy Yuletide!


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